Sorry to say it, but this could be the most unlikeable Love Island cast of all time

Love Island isn’t reality. Yet, every season – thanks to editing, producer intervention and contestants’ haywire decisions, we instinctively feel loyalties to certain Islanders and apathy or hostility to others. After watching an hour of their behaviour each day we’re manipulated into thinking we know them: Their personalities, their morals. We feel their emotions and fan girl.

But this year, sorry, I couldn’t care less. Samie and Tom are shit stirring. Casey couldn’t care less about Rosie. Ron and Lana have already taken up too much screen time. Tanya and Shaq are living in a love delusion. Kai and Sanam are vanilla and Will totally let the nation down with Jessie.

Relationship apathy while watching Love Island isn’t unusual. There always comes a point in each season where we get suspicious whether the 12 influencers sat around the fire pit really love each other at all. We start to feel jaded as we question the showmances. We try to figure out who’s playing a game with who as dumped Islanders spill more unaired information.

What usually saves the show from skepticism and keeps us invested is Friendship Island. Kaz and Liberty or Chloe and Millie in 2021. Molly-Mae and Maura in 2019.  Chris and Kem in 2017. This year, I couldn’t even tell you if any of the Islanders actually even like each other as friends. But I suspect they don’t. Last night, Shaq literally told Ron they had to live together but they didn’t have to be friends.

While passive aggressiveness broke out (again) among the boys, there was a reconciliation brunch among the girls. Lana and Samie chatted over a blueberry muffin like co-workers trapped making tea in a staff kitchen after a HR intervention. At best, they’re all polite. If someone cries, they hug. That isn’t actual bestie type connection. That’s human decency.

Sorry to say it, but with no strong couples to root for and no amazing friendships to ship, this could be the most unlikeable Love Island cast of all time. It’s hard to care what happens next to the prize money or otherwise. The real drama is outside the villa with Tanyel’s podcast appearances. And any semblance of female friendship evaporated the moment she left the villa, too.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• ‘Women are on the back foot’: Female contestants on the eye-watering cost of going on Love Island

• Right, why exactly are all the Love Island boys wearing pearl necklaces this year?

• Ibiza beach clubs, Printworks closing parties: Inside Will from Love Island’s raving and misbehaving